I was waiting for you to ask! My MRI showed some surgical complications, and reduced liver function, but nothing life threatening. The important part is this: no more tumours seen anywhere! And my last chemo session is tomorrow!

Looks like I might just have beat this thing (thing=pancreatic cancer).

Well, we have a “Smiling Irishman” as the new Archbishop of New York who was installed on one day and the very next day, one of his flock, the catholic(sic) Governor of New York, introduced a bill calling for degenerates to be allowed to be “married”. I truly cannot imagine what could possibly be done which would get our hierarchy angry. We have had priests and Catholic laymen abusing boys . We have had priests (Fr. Drinan) and lay (the Kennedys as one example) who are pro abortion. Why is anyone smiling?

Post-hospitalization check and x-rays showed no lingering (that they could see) effects of my collapsed lung episode from last week.

Stitches out in an hour.

Jesus was good to me in inviting me to suffer with him during Holy Week. I even have the wound in my side to prove it…:) Received, in hospital, the Sacraments of Penance, Holy Eucharist, and of the Sick. Was able to approach the Easter Vigil with as renewed a soul as possible to fully participate in the unmerited gifts of His Grace at that most special celebration.

Fr. Robert Parent, the only TLM chaplain in the State of Maine, has recovered
and celebrated two Masses on Easter Sunday. And Fr. Z will not have to act on
his impulse to get on a plane to help. God bless you, Father, for your kind
heart.

As I hinted at yesterday, background “chatter” is increasing significantly with respect to the reunion of traditional Anglicans with the Holy See. The Holy Father is said to want this to happen and the “last few” details are supposedly being worked out now. So we may well see something very significant in this area sooner rather than later. Or so, at least, is my hope.

We’d probably convince more people that our opposition to same sex marriage is not rooted in antipathy for gays and lesbians as human beings if we showed a bit of charity for people with same sex attraction.

Good news: I recently heard that a certain couple is going to have their child baptized, when there was some talk of it not happening. The mother is not Catholic and the husband is sort of Catholic in name only, but they are baptizing their daughter anyways.

My book on the new English translation of the Mass (volume 1, the prayers of the people) is 90% done. I only have the Communion Rite and the Concluding Rite left. Then it’s a matter of getting approval to use the English and Latin texts. ICEL and the USCCB have been sending me in circles. :|

Our good news is that we are finally getting the E-F in our parish, St. Joseph’s, in Jacksonville, Florida after a struggle lasting almost 19 months. It will be the only one in our diocese (St. Augustine) apart from the prior indult Church, Immaculate Conception. We plan to start on Pentecost Sunday. Our only problem is that we are finding it extremely difficult to obtain maniples, chalice veils, pall, burse, long altar cloths etc. We have vestments, 1962 Missale Romanum. Please post any suggestions as to sources of supplies. We have even telephoned several suppliers in India.
AMR

Four abortuaries have been served with “cease and desist” orders for practicing without a license in San Antonio. A fifth, where the 40 Days for Life program has been holding non-ending prayer vigils, is being investigated.

My broken arm is healing well and I don’t have to wear the cast all the time anymore. The local tea party was spirited and well-attended. I didn’t screech anything in Beethoven’s Alleluia Mount of Olives. I wrote a song this morning that wasn’t half bad. And I think I’ve finally grasped the melody to “Aurora Lucis Rutilant” — and that it sounds a lot like birds waking up. :)

We were just told we would be getting a new pastor in July– and the only priest ordained in our diocese since Vatican II to say the old Mass! We are beyond excited! Ever since we were received into the Church six years ago, our family has been hoping for a reprieve from the liturgical disorientation and insanity.

I attended Mass on Easter Tuesday, and though (or because) I did not present myself for the Eucharist, I began to feel a great weight being lifted and a purging of the remorse I’d been feeling. This led to my making amends and I’m preparing now for Confession. God through his sacrifice and sacraments is drawing me back to him.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Confession and absolution! Relatively better health of late for our parents after a challenging year. A roof over our heads and continued employment in tough times. A new pastor named for our parish, hopefully turning a page on some of the trials of the past few years. Friends and family to share both the joys and sorrows. The example of a friend who refuses to let tragedy, grief and anger draw him into violence. The graces of the Word and the Word made Flesh.

Lent, in particular, brought many graces. Maybe more to say in a separate comment.

I attended Mass in the Extraordinary Form on Easter (only my second time as an adult). And a week later, I am still kind of overwhelmed by the experience. And my 6 year old daughter accompanied me and she want to go back too!

I began a novena of prayers to the Miraculous Infant of Prague for one of my sons and his family, and for one of my grandsons and his family. Both were having extreme financial difficulties. Within two weeks the biggest problem for my grandson was solved, a decent place to live; and the other day my son called to tell me that their problem was resolved with even better results than they could have expected. I have promised to promote devotion to the Infant Jesus of Prague. These problems were of long standing and not until I began the novena were the outcomes happy. I do believe in miracles.

The photos a fellow parishioner and I took over the Triduum made it into a featured story on our parish in The Georgia Bulletin, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. And, one of the photos I took takes up the entire first page of the paper. I was excited when I saw it, to say the least.

My wife and I just spent most of the Easter Triduum at Santissima Trinita del Pelligrini, the FSSP parish in Rome, and it is definitely good news. There is apparently solid (if not universal) support in the curia and Roman chancery for liturgical reform.
O7-07-07 — the beginning of the recovery of Christendom.

On Easter Vigil we had 3 baptisms + 3 more receptions. The next day one girl made her First Holy Communion, Next week will see 20 more First Holy Communions and I have multiple infant baptisms lined up for the remainder of April and May. One wedding tomorrow and another in two weeks. Before the end of the school year, I hope to start training the boys in 3rd grade to serve ad altare Dei. There most be more, but those are the highlights for now.

This week we learned that our pastor(FSSP) will be the celebrant
for the Missa Cantata High Mass in the extraordinary form for Good Shepherd Sunday at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament (EWTN) We are so blessed!

The good news is that we’re continuing to handle the not-so-good news with
complete confidence and trust in God. I learned today that my 13 yr-old’s
cardiac problems have been exacerbated by puberty and will require more medication
and more frequent monitoring but not, thank God, surgery, at least not now
This on the same day that my autistic son had to start wearing a very cumbersome
back brace for a spinal deformity that was just diagnosed. And, this is in addition
to the 13-yr-old also needing a back brace to hopefully correct her scoliosis. Am I complaining?
Not on your life. The hospital where both kids are treated is brimming with
families facing much tougher problems and with astounding grace and courage.
When the grandparents start freaking out about all of this, I remind them that
someone always has it worse and we actually don’t have it all that bad.

Susan Boyle, a devout Catholic from Blackburn, West Lothian, Scotland is good news. The youngest of nine children, her now famous rendition of _I Dream a Dream_ has taken the world by storm. She is good news.

Two friends were confirmed by the Bishop in the Extraordinary Form last night. The Devil worked very hard to block them up to the last minute. But they persisted and God prevailed. Praise be Jesus and thanks to guardian angels.

I wonder if we were in the same small NC town last night. My son was also Confirmed, by the Bishop, in the Extraordinary Form.

It was the answer to a lot of prayers, to have the Bishop actually come to our tiny little parish like that, and to have a liturgy that was so reverent.

We had a litany for vocations during Exposition and it was so appropriate. This group has been mostly boys since their class first formed in the first grade. I know for a fact that one has been thinking about the priesthood and I suspect some of the others are, too.

And I forgot to add some really great news. Word has it that my pastor is planning to put up a crucifix in the sanctuary (and he wants a really big one to hang from the ceiling above the altar). There is some very vehement opposition to it from the staff, but I think the parishioners at large will appreciate it.

Here in Coeur D’Alene Idaho, our FSSP chapel, St. Joan of Arc, has progressed immensely since we moved into it last August. I will send some pictures shortly. We’ve grown to over 400 in a short space of time and had to add a third Mass on Sunday. I’ll send some pictures shortly.

Last Easter Sunday, after waiting for one year for the declaration of nullity regarding my husband’s previous marriage (I had married outside the Catholic church and at the time, never imagined I’d come back…) our marriage was finally convalidated and I was allowed to receive the Holy Eucharist again. It was amazing. I sobbed like a baby. During that year of waiting, the Holy Spirit showed me that yes, the Eucharist is indeed the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not a “symbol.”

I was Confirmed on Apr. 2, the 4th anniversary of Pope John Paul II\’s death.

Father Totton, it made sense to me the first time and is wonderful imagery to think of the priests as sons of the parish.

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Let us pray…

Grant unto thy Church, we beseech
Thee, O merciful God, that She, being
gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may
be in no wise troubled by attack from her
foes.
O God, who by sin art offended and by
penance pacified, mercifully regard the
prayers of Thy people making supplication
unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of
Thine anger which we deserve for our sins.
Almighty and Everlasting God, in
whose Hand are the power and the
government of every realm: look down upon
and help the Christian people that the heathen
nations who trust in the fierceness of their
own might may be crushed by the power of
thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end. R. Amen.

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Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

- St. John Paul II

A bit more food for thought…

“Only one sin is nowadays severely punished: the attentive observance of the traditions of our Fathers. For that reason the good ones are thrown out of their places and brought to the desert.”

For your consideration…

"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

More food for thought:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

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More food for thought…

"All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void."

- Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137, 176

Even More Food For Thought

"Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties:
1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes.
2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests."

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Additional Food For Thought

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

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